Air conditioning in Gidea Park

Why is Gidea Park built like no other suburb nearby?

Because it began as an exhibition. Sir Herbert Raphael bought the Gidea Hall estate in 1897 and formed a development company in 1910; the foundation stone was laid on 28 July 1910, and in June 1911 the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages opened to the public. By 1912, 159 houses had been built by more than 100 architects, among them Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, M. H. Baillie Scott and Clough Williams-Ellis. A second exhibition in 1934 added 35 houses, most of them flat-roofed and modernist, on Heath Drive, Brook Road and Eastern Avenue, one of them by Francis Skinner and Tecton at 64 Heath Drive. The station, now on the Elizabeth line, was built to bring visitors to the 1911 show. Havering's character study puts the result plainly: every house is different from its neighbour. The conservation area holds 13 listed buildings and 19 locally listed ones. Sources: Gidea Park appraisal, 2008; London Gardens Trust; Gidea Park management plan, 2025; Havering character study.

What does the Gidea Park Article 4 direction control?

A great deal of the outside of each house. The conservation area was designated in June 1970 and extended in February 1989 to take in the station. Its current Article 4 direction came into force on 31 December 2015, was confirmed in June 2016, and sets two levels of control. At Level 1, enlarging or altering a house at the front or sides, changing the roof at the front or sides, laying hard surfaces at the front or sides, and putting up outbuildings or oil and gas tanks for heating anywhere on the plot all need planning permission. Level 2 extends the controls on extensions and roofs to the rear and adds porches, gates, fences and walls, means of access, and even painting the outside of the house.

The direction does not name heat pumps or air conditioning, so the ordinary conservation-area conditions still decide where an outdoor unit may go: never on a wall or roof that fronts a road, and never between the house and the road. The 2025 management plan, in the draft we read before its adoption that September, asks for any new external equipment to be kept to rear elevations. At a Level 2 house, painting or making good afterwards needs thought too. A unit with no outdoor box is sometimes the simpler answer here. Sources: Gidea Park appraisal, 2008; Havering Council, Article 4 direction; Gidea Park management plan, 2025; adoption of the 2025 appraisals; Planning Portal.

Who lives in Gidea Park and Ardleigh Green?

Mostly owners paying off a mortgage. Squirrels Heath ward, which covers Ardleigh Green and Gidea Park, had 38.4% of its households buying with a mortgage at the 2021 Census, the highest share in Havering; 36.4% lived in semi-detached houses, 14.9% in detached houses and 25.0% in flats, and 18.6% rented privately. The ward is one of seven in Havering's selective licensing scheme, which runs from 18 March 2026 to 17 March 2031, so a landlord letting a house there needs a licence, and a tenant needs that landlord's written consent before any unit is fitted. Romford's rules are on our Romford page, and the wider picture for Redbridge is on our air conditioning in Ilford page. Sources: Area Insights, Squirrels Heath; Havering Council, licensing.

Services we offer in Gidea Park

All ten services below are available in Gidea Park. Each card opens a page on what the work involves.

What happens after you get in touch?

1. A short call about the building

   Phone 020 8176 6154 or send the form. We ask what kind of property it is, which rooms you want cooler or warmer, and whether you own the wall the pipes would pass through, so the visit covers what matters.

2. A visit, measurements and a written quote

   At the property we size the room, find a spot for the outdoor unit, work out the sound level at the closest neighbouring window and check that the fuse board can take a new circuit. The quote follows on paper, with the electrical work and any access equipment on separate lines.

3. Agreement before anything is ordered

   If a freeholder, landlord, managing agent or the council must approve the work, nothing is bought until they do. We supply the plan and noise figure they normally want to see.

4. Fitting day and handover

   We fix both units, run the pipes, drain and cable, pressure-test the pipework and pull a vacuum on it before any refrigerant goes in, then check the system in cooling and in heating. We go through the controls with you and leave the paperwork. A yearly service keeps it efficient.